Tissue products, such as facial tissues, paper towels, bath tissues and other similar products, are designed to include several important properties. For example, the products should have good bulk, a soft feel and should have good integrity. Moreover, it is often desirable to provide such tissues with high absorbency characteristics, particularly when used in certain applications, such as paper towels.
In the past, superabsorbent materials have been applied to paper products to increase their absorbency characteristics. For example, superabsorbents have been applied to dry sheets. Moreover, superabsorbents have also been applied to wet base sheets. For example, EP 0 359 615 A1 describes one method of applying a superabsorbent material to a wet base sheet. However, one problem associated with applying superabsorbent material to a dry sheet or to a wet base sheet in a conventional manner is that the superabsorbent material is not uniformly distributed throughout the paper web. As a result, only portions of the paper web may have sufficient absorbent capabilities.
As such, a need currently exists for an improved method of uniformly incorporating a superabsorbent material into a tissue product.